Letters and feedback: Nov. 28, 2017

The Cocoa Beach Pier attracts crowds daily. In 2016, the Space Coast Office of Tourism announced a marketing push for 18- to 34-year-old millennials on videos and social media.(Photo: MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY)Buy Photo

I just read your front-page article about "Who owns Florida's beaches?" with great interest and humor. Humor? Yes, reading about all the previous and ongoing legal, political and private machinations about this "difficult" issue is beyond laughable.

The answer to the question is quite simple — "We all do." Just ask Hawaii. Several years ago my wife and I toured the islands and in particular, Kauai. As we drove past Sylvester Stallone's beach house, our guide related that recently Sly had gotten all ticked off because people kept walking by on the beach and interrupting his privacy. Consequently he attempted to "privatize" his beach front, with no success. The Hawaiian government nixed Sly's attempt immediately, stating that the beaches belonged to everyone and could not be privately owned by any person, group or business entity (hotels etc).

Think about it: The Hawaiian state leadership took a strong stand for the ... people. What a concept. Unlike here in Florida, apparently mired in bureaucracy and legal mumbo-jumbo over the selfish greed exhibited by beach front property owners. Also, think about how many of our tax dollars are being spent each year replacing the sand on beaches we can't even walk on.

"Who owns Florida's beaches "? We all do.

Lawrence Baker, Mims

Wealthy don't own the sky, either

The wealthy do not own the beach in front of their homes any more than they own the sky above their houses. Public access to these beaches existed long before they built their McMansions on sand dunes that should never have been built on.

Our tax dollars pay for the maintenance and renourishment of all our beaches; therefore they should all be public access.

And the public should continue to fight to open up and maintain public access to as many access points as possible.

If you want a private beach, go buy your own private island like Richard Branson did.

John Cielukowski, Cocoa Beach

Gun owners must retain rights

To the person who wrote the Nov. 25 letter titled "On guns: Quit making excuses": I take exception to your statement that I as a gun owner should accept responsibility for carnage other gun owners leave behind. Check your facts, sir, and you will find that probably few, if any, of the killers of innocents, got their guns legally. They don't hold concealed weapon permits, and they are certainly not certified members of the NRA.

You might also find that some of these killers stole the guns they used in the first place. Are you going to say next that all car/truck owners are responsible for incidents in which people are killed? How about knives, baseball bats, and other items that people use in killings? Are you responsible for someone being killed using one of these items?

It is true that there are gun laws on the books that should be enforced. Yet someone kills innocent people and they are not convicted because he/she had a bad childhood. Our criminal justice system is at times a joke. If a potential gun buyer has a thorough background check, and is deemed legal to buy that gun, he/she should be able to purchase it without being labeled as responsible for some lunatic/fanatic going on a killing spree. It seems that you have a warped sense of where to place the blame.

Bill Wilson, Titusville

Tragedy of untreated mental illness

Marshall Frank's Nov. 17 column effectively describes the tragedy of untreated mental illness, but blames it on a 1975 Supreme Court ruling which he believes required mentally ill patients to be discharged unless they are convicted of a crime.

Actually the court found that a patient can be legally hospitalized if he is a danger to himself or others, cannot care for himself, or even to provide essential treatment. The real problem is that Florida legislators provide no resources to do it. Patients wait months for a bed at our sole remaining state mental hospital for civil commitments. Here in Brevard we have lost the Children's Psychiatric Center, while Circles of Care is underfunded, with limited staff and a high turnover. Patients involuntarily hospitalized are usually released within two days, obviously insufficient time for adequate treatment. Far more of our mentally ill are warehoused at enormous cost in our jails, where they receive no treatment at all. Long-term housing is almost nonexistent.

We will find a solution only when we are as willing to provide our mentally ill with adequate care that can restore their human dignity as we are to spend millions to lock them up like animals.